


cold on your bones

by birdlaced



Category: The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Complicated Relationships, F/M, Glamoured!Jude (but not really), Jealousy, Kissing, Other: See Story Notes, the wicked king spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-23 00:55:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20883509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birdlaced/pseuds/birdlaced
Summary: The first time Cardan saw Jude after they got her back from the Undersea, she was kissing his brother.





	cold on your bones

**Author's Note:**

> About the canon divergence: Jude never goes to see Cardan when she gets back from the Undersea and he doesn't see her until the masquerade, therefore Cardan doesn't know about Dain's geas. Which means FakeGlamoured!Jude. How fun!
> 
> Do I ship Jude and Balekin? No, not really. But was I hoping there would be a Jude and Balekin getting caught kissing scene? Yes, because that would probably kill Cardan inside. Who doesn't love a little Cardan angst?

Even after their night spent together, tangled in each other’s arms and Jude on her back, hair cascading over his silk couch like a tawny sea, Cardan hadn't expected anything from her. Nothing would change between them just because they’d been intimate. After all, he never much cared for staying in contact with his liaisons to court them before, and this was no different. Not really. But this was Jude, his seneschal. Avoiding her was an impossibility.

Before Balekin went off and betrayed their father, Cardan was quick to move on once he’d had his share of a girl. Even after Jude had forced the crown upon his head, he'd mostly kept up to his old habits of seducing the entire female population of Elfhame. Nicasia had been an outlier, his first and only time in love, and that relationship went up in flames thanks to Locke. It would do Cardan well to continue with his method of flirting, fucking and abandoning, if only to save face. It was best not to get involved with another silly faerie girl anymore.

Jude was not a faerie though. She was completely mortal, which was arguably much worse if Cardan was to allow himself to get ensnared in matters of the heart with her. This was why he’d always taken great care in keeping her at an arm’s length, to poke and prod at the beast and only spare a chuckle when she roared. This is what was safe: pretending that she wasn’t constantly dancing across his mind; pretending she was a mere annoyance to be cruel to as he saw fit; pretending he wouldn't raze all of Elfhame for her if she simply asked.

She too pretended―pretended that she didn’t want him. Cardan knew she had strong feelings for him, in some capacity. They might not have been romantic in nature, but they were there all the same. Perhaps it was pure loathing; perhaps she wasn’t lying when she said she hated him. It hardly mattered, because for a single night they traded daggers and harsh words for searing kisses and fevered touches. Cardan allowed himself to think this would be their new normal for a moment. He'd fallen asleep with her after they'd clothed themselves, legs tangled and bodies pressed together as they tried to fit in the well hidden couch in the room behind the dais. And when he'd awoken, Jude was gone, the spot next to him having gone cold a long time ago.

When he saw her next, she was exactly how she’d been before, pretending she had never kissed his lips and scheming her next scheme.

This was fine. It had to be fine, Cardan had no other choice. Jude would take over his heart and his mind if he allowed it, so he wouldn’t.

Although, Cardan realized now as he saw Jude kissing Balekin on the balcony―one of her trembling hands pressed to his brother’s cheek and the other fisting into the skirt of her dress―that it was probably too late. She had bewitched him, body and soul, and he was in love with her. 

And she was kissing his brother.

Cardan didn’t remember walking up to them, rearing a fist back and then slamming it into Balekin’s jaw. But he surely must have, because suddenly his knuckles ached something fierce and Balekin was braced against the balcony railing, fingers curled against his face where Cardan had struck him. He spit blood out onto the pavement, and Cardan felt a carnal joy at the sight of it.

Jude stood there, eyes wide with shock and hand covering her mouth. For a brief moment fierceness shone in her gaze and it seemed as though she was going to say or do something, but then she quickly got a hold of herself and turned to Balekin. Her eyes no longer glowed, but were dull and lifeless in a way that had to have been purposeful.

“Are you alright, Balekin?” Jude asked, her voice strangely soft and airy. She didn’t sound like herself, but Cardan was too consumed with his rage to notice. Her hand hovered over Balekin, unsure if she was allowed to touch. Cardan had no idea why she would hesitate when it was obvious Balekin didn’t mind her hands on him.

“Don’t worry about me,” Balekin said, sounding strangely pleased for someone who was just assaulted. He rose to his full height, almost a full head taller than his younger brother. “Run along, pet. Obviously my brother needs to have a word with me.”

“She stays,” Cardan said, voice laced with malice. “Don’t move, Jude.”

Jude blinked in surprise, glancing between the two brothers “I… I don’t―”

Cardan didn’t like that she was acting like a bumbling idiot, like she had no idea what was going on. Where was the headstrong girl he knew and loved? The only silly girl he knew who could act like this was Taryn.

“Wait.” Her voice hadn’t sounded anything like Jude’s sister, but Cardan wasn’t sure anymore. He had always been able to tell the two apart. Always. But he had also been so angry and he wasn’t thinking clearly. “Taryn?”

Balekin laughed at that reaching out to touch Jude’s―Taryn’s?―hand and pulled her flush against his own body. She went willingly, and Balekin’s hand braced against the base of her neck, thorned fingers getting lost in a tangle of brown hair. He turned to her, lips curling into a secret smile. “Go on, pet. Tell him your name.”

“Jude Duarte,” she responded, voice sweet and syrupy, and Cardan’s heart fell from his chest, down to the ground and made a home among the worms and dirt. “My name is Jude Duarte.”

That was when Cardan realized why something about Jude seemed so off. Her soft voice, the glazed over look in her eyes and on her face. She was glamoured. They must have taken her rowan berries and salt during her month in the Undersea. There was no telling what they did to her down there, what they made her do―what Balekin made her do.

“Should I go, Balekin?” Jude asked, ignoring Cardan and wrapping her delicate hands around his brother’s waist.

“No, no, you might as well stay,” Balekin said, and suddenly he was pressing his face into the crook of Jude’s neck, a hand coming to rest just under her breast. Cardan saw red, but he stood his ground and didn’t raise another hand to his brother. “What can I do for you, dear brother?”

“Not her,” Cardan spat. “Anyone but her. Release your glamour over her, Balekin.”

“It took you far too long to notice what was afflicting her,” Balekin said with a faux nonchalance, pressing kiss after kiss against Jude’s neck and bare shoulder. Carden’s eyes burned holes in the places where his brother’s lips met her skin. He would make her scrub her flesh clean later tonight. “You’re losing your touch.”

_ “Quiet.” _

Balekin paid that warning no heed. The hand resting on her ribs moved upward until it curled just under Jude’s chin, making her look forward, right into Cardan’s eyes. “Is she not lovely, Cardan?”

She was, but Cardan doubted that Balekin truly thought the same of her. Cardan knew what Balekin thought of mortals. He despised them when they weren’t indentured to him. Even then, he still had a strong dislike for them. They were nothing more than a means to an end for the prince, and it was obvious that Balekin was using Jude to get a rile out of Cardan. What was worse was that it was working.

Cardan clenched his jaw and without a word he reached out and grabbed Jude by the arm, tugging her away from his brother. His seneschal went willingly, shoulder bumping against his chest. “She is mine,” he said, ignoring the lump in his throat. This was humiliating, but for Jude he would endure. She would certainly be humiliated, once he’d figured out how to free her from Balekin’s glamour. “Jude is my seneschal. Under my protection. Release your glamour or you’ll be tried for treason against the Crown, Balekin. Do not test me.”

Balekin’s smile was sharp and cruel, and Cardan hated that he looked so much like his older brother. It hardly mattered that there was blood upon his lip, dripping down his chin. It hardly mattered that there was a deep bruise forming where Cardan had allowed himself to give into his rage. Balekin seemed pleased as can be, as though he got just what he wanted.

Cardan glanced down at Jude, who quietly clung onto his velvet coat and stared at the golden embroidery at his collar. Her knuckles were white and her jaw was set tightly, and not once did she look up at him. He could see her shoulders trembling.

Dread settled deep into Cardan’s soul. Just what did they do to her in the Undersea? Would she make an attempt on his life at the bequest of Queen Orlagh? Or was it a command from his own brother, as a way to prove her love and loyalty to him?

“As you wish, High King,” Balekin said, and then turned to Jude. She didn’t look at him, keeping her eyes trained on Cardan's chest. “I apologize for the trouble I have caused you, my pet. I mean, _Jude. _Have a good evening.”

He bowed at the pair, but it was obvious that he was only toying with Cardan. Cardan didn’t respond, and simply clutched Jude’s slender shoulders and watched as Balekin walked off, disappearing into the crowd of fae that danced and reveled in the splendor that the kingdom had to offer.

It was only when he was sure that they were alone on the balcony that he pushed Jude away, putting her at an arm’s length. It seemed as though physical distance didn’t matter anymore, for no matter where Jude Duarte was, she was always living in the High King of Elfhame’s heart. Still, putting some space between them meant Cardan would be able to see if she came at him with a dagger, as she was often wont to do.

“Are you an idiot?” Jude asked, and her voice was normal once more, laced with the unique mix of disdain and malice that was used just for the High King. Cardan blinked, staring down at her and was surprised to find she was glaring back at him, pretty mortal eyes glowing in the moonlight. "I had it all under control, you didn’t need to try to play the hero."

“What did Balekin tell you to do?” Cardan asked, the compelling tenor of a glamour in his voice. He was choosing for a moment to ignore Jude’s insult because despite the fact that she was belittling him, Cardan was strangely happy that she seemed like herself again.

Jude scowled, crossing her arms over her chest, and seemed utterly unaffected by Cardan’s glamour. In his frazzled state, Cardan hadn't thought it odd that her eyes didn't go glassy and soft. “They’re trying to kill you―Balekin and Orlagh. They tried to glamour me into slipping you some poison.”

“Tried?”

Jude bit her lip, and Cardan’s eyes were drawn to them. Her mouth was soft and sweet looking, and just a couple of moments ago it had been over his brother’s lips. Cardan wanted to make her forget all about Balekin’s kiss by replacing them with his own.

“Glamours don’t work on me,” she told him.

“I don’t believe you,” Cardan said, because she was a mortal. Glamours worked on all mortals. Jude was fiery and unique, but she was just as susceptible to faerie wiles as any other human. This is why she’d been curled up against Balekin just a moment ago. Surely not because she wanted to be at his brother’s side, right? “Why would glamours not work on you?”

“It was one of my terms with Dain when I became one of his Royal spies,” Jude explained, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her perfectly rounded ears. “He put a geas on me at my request, and it seems to have outlived him. I cannot be glamoured by any faerie. Go ahead. Try.”

He didn't bother with trying to glamour her. It took very little on her part, and Cardan believed her, for some reason. Despite knowing she was mortal and unbound by the trickiness of faerie honesty, this did not reek of deceit. He could hardly believe a being was capable of such ostentatious lying, but this was Jude. Jude, the woman who, in five short months, had lied to him, both blatantly and by omission, right to his face.

And he believed her still.

He had the heart of a fool.

Cardan wasn’t sure what to feel. On the one hand, that meant Jude was acting of her own accord when she’d kissed Balekin. On the other, it was proof that Jude was still keeping secrets from him even now. Just what kind of relationship did she have with not only Balekin, but with Dain as well? Cardan had so many questions for her, but only one answer seemed to matter in this moment.

“Why were you kissing Balekin?”

Jude blinked, taken aback by the question. Even in the dim moonlight Cardan could see the flush of embarrassment on her face. She said, “Just because I told you I couldn’t be glamoured, does not mean I told your brother. How do you think I managed to survive for a month in the Undersea?”

“What did he make you do?” Cardan demanded. “Has he kissed you before? Ask you to do more?”

“Why does this matter―”

“Tell me,” Cardan said, sounding much like the king that he actually was. He thought himself above begging, but if Jude wouldn’t tell him what she’d been up to with his brother, Cardan would have to reconsider.

“He has commanded I kiss him before, yes,” Jude confirmed, looking frustrated with Cardan. “I don’t see how this has any relevance to their plot to have you killed. Kissing Balekin was a means to an end, a way to assure my survival. You’re focusing on the wrong thing, Cardan.”

Cardan knew he was being unreasonable, but the idea that Balekin had the pleasure of Jude’s kisses was more than he could bare. Jude had kissed him before, yes, but it had never been as soft and sweet as the one she just shared with Balekin.

“We should go back inside,” Jude said. “It isn’t safe to be out here by ourselves.”

Jude shouldered past him. Or she attempted to, because she hardly made it two steps before Cardan was reaching out to grab onto her shoulder and spinning her on her heels.

“Jude,” he said. Once, with every amount of emotion he could muster.

Jude looked at him, heart shaped face tilted slightly, but didn’t respond. Cardan couldn’t help when he leaned forward to press his lips to hers. It was chaste, but it sent thrills through Cardan’s veins all the same. Jude allowed this kiss for a moment, and then pulled away as if she’d been burned. Cardan expected her to yell in a flash of anger, to hit him with her small fist and then abandon him. She did neither of these things.

Instead she simply stared at him, eyes stormy with an emotion Cardan couldn’t place, and gently wiped her mouth to rid herself of any Greenbriar kiss she’d been subjected to.

She said, “Let’s go inside. They’re probably expecting you,” as if he hadn’t kissed her a moment ago.

This time, when she moved past him, Cardan allowed it. He could do nothing else but follow.


End file.
